A new survey being carried out as part of the BIMCO/ICS Manpower Report 2015 is directly engaging seafarers in order to understand their views on life at sea and outlook for the industry’s manpower in the years ahead. Preliminary results of the new survey indicate that the majority of respondents are content with life at sea.
The boards of the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN) and the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) are pleased to announce the moving of the activities of the MPHRP into ISWAN. A transfer agreement was signed by both parties on 3 August 2015. ISWAN will now be responsible for all the activities of the highly respected MPHRP. The move to ISWAN will enable the programme to develop under the auspices of a well-established international seafarers’ welfare organisation that is registered as a charity.
At a high-level Arctic Summit, organised by The Economist magazine in Oslo on 12 March, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) – the global trade association for merchant ship operators – highlighted important issues associated with the growth of Arctic shipping and expressed confidence in the industry’s environmental performance.
The humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea is spiralling out of control. EU Member States must act urgently to prevent the loss of thousands more lives, as hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees seek to escape to Europe in boats that are unfit for purpose and which are largely operated by people smugglers.
Submitted by Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, BIMCO, CLIA, IALA, ICS, InterManager and the Nautical Institute, Maritime Safety Committee, 95th Session, Agenda Item 19, March 2015.
ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe remarked “The very largest flag states, such as the Bahamas, Liberia and the Marshall Islands, as well as Hong Kong, Singapore, Cyprus and Greece, all continue to demonstrate very impressive levels of performance, as do all of the other large European and Asian flags.”
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is hopeful progress can now be made towards improving the facilitation of shore leave and crew transfers for the world’s 1.5 million merchant seafarers, who collectively transport about 90% of world trade. This follows important recommendations by an International Labour Organization (ILO) tripartite meeting of employers, seafarers’ unions and governments in Geneva last week, at which ICS co-ordinated the shipowners’ representation.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has agreed that the shipping and bunker refining industries should work to the possibility that the global 0.5% sulphur in fuel cap, required by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), is more likely to be implemented worldwide from 2020, rather than 2025.